Honey & Clover

I figured it’s about time for a quick anime series recommendation and review. I’ll start off with a series I’ve been watching every spare moment I get for the past week and a half: Honey and Clover. The creativity put into the series can be seen from the highly quirky and original opening sequence which, for once, features no angsty character shots or clips of the main characters, but clay models of various foods in various states of activity. Gives a whole new meaning to “playing with your food” and is one of the memorable opening sequences I have ever seen, which immediately piqued my interest (check out the opening sequence on youtube here)

anime – an introduction

A word about Anime.

For those who are completely unfamiliar with anime (pronounced “Annie-may”) and all the joys of watching therein implied in its consonants, let me explain. If you should find grown men and women sitting and watching “Cartoons” which may or may not be in Japanese, they are watching anime. If you wish to piss them off, ask them why they’re watching these wierd cartoons when they’re not children anymore. Believe me, it works.

Anyhow, in the simplest possible language, anime differs from your regular tom and jerry and disney cartoons in several ways. First, most anime is made for adults, not children. A lot of anime series I’ve watched have a lot of lighthearted references to sex and mild nudity for the sake of a romance or comedic storyline, several curses (in Japanese, I might add), violence and gore. Most anime deals with mature themes and have complicated storylines. Some are specifically geared towards children, such as Pokemon, Digimon and the like. Some series are popular with children and adults alike since they have something for everyone, for example Naruto, Dragonball, Dragonball Z, etc.

To go into a lengthy description and comparision of what makes Anime different from regular old cartoons aimed at kids would be long winded and mainly repeating most of the information provided via other sources, which is neatly melded into one wikipedia article. Those interested can read up on the subject at this link.

The reason I bring it up is that I’ve finally gotten around to watching most of the anime I’ve accumulated and will probably start discussing/reviewing some soon, hence this introductory post for those who haven’t the foggiest about it.